WHILE THE opposition PNCR and AFC continue with the politics of division and distortions in the face of the government’s outstanding record of achievements, those interested in Guyana’s future progress would find further encouragement in two recent developments:
First, there was the adoption last week in Geneva by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNCHR) of Guyana’s comprehensive report on its human rights record.
That was done even with the unfolding orchestrated propaganda campaign by elements and forces, here at home and abroad, to ignore the facts and government’s further assurances.
Secondly, the opposition parties, known for their passion to lean on the arms of outsiders in their propaganda campaign against the government’s economic development strategy, would have been disappointed by last Thursday’s disclosure by President Bharrat Jagdeo.
It was the President’s announcement that within 10 days, the Norwegian government would be depositing US$30M into the Guyana REDD Investment Fund (GRIF) in keeping with an agreement to be a major partner with Guyana in its now internationally recognised imaginative forest protection project.
Earlier, these opposition forces, currently immersed in their own internal political squabblings, would also have been frustrated by the resounding public expressions of support from various sections of the society for the government’s handling of the controversial CLICO issue.
But they will, nevertheless, seek to show a brave public face, even as they grapple with sharp differences on tactics and strategies for a common platform, or front, against the government in time for next year’s general election.
Latest of changing scenarios with respect to efforts by the PNCR/AFC’s to spawn an anti-PPP/C front for the coming elections was the recent threat to boycott the 2011 elections unless, according to the AFC’s Raphael Trotman, they could get the government to carry out their demands to probe what was known as the ‘Phantom Squad’.
What a pathetic political strategy.
Now has come the news, as reported in the Stabroek News with which he has had a long association, that retired Brigadier of the Guyana Defence Force, David Granger, is a likely choice among aspirants to lead the PNCR into next year’s general election.
Not without significance, is that Granger has already moved with haste to deny any involvement, as alleged, in the infamous seizure of ballot boxes in the Corentyne by the GDF in 1973, when two stalwarts for electoral democracy, Jagan Ramessar and Permanand Bholanauth, were shot to death.